Andrew Cuomo—the hard-headed former governor of New York state —became something of a national hero in 2020 with his no-nonsense press conferences. By 2021, he was mired in a sexual misconduct scandal and the fallout from a public health disaster. How is he polling so well in the Democratic primary for New York’s mayoral race? Guest: Jimmy Vielkind, New York politics reporter for WNYC. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and acro...
Mar 11, 2025•30 min
They were three Harris-supporting women, from across the country, all married to Trump-supporting men—and they were all contemplating divorce. Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer who wrote about women considering leaving their husbands over their support for Donald Trump and the author of Sucker Punch. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple P...
Mar 10, 2025•30 min
After the election, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was doing away with Facebook’s fact-checking apparatus in the US. With content creators getting paid based on reach, and content spreading wider and faster the more extreme it is, is Facebook the perfect environment for misinformation to flourish? Guest: Craig Silverman, technology reporter for ProPublica. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate pod...
Mar 09, 2025•33 min
To understand the second Trump administration, you have to understand the internet culture that gave birth to it. Guest: Elle Reeve, CNN correspondent who reported on the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA for Vice News. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnext...
Mar 07, 2025•34 min
Aware of Donald Trump’s reputation as a dealmaker, Ukrainians had some hope as he took office—maybe Trump could break the stalemate with Russia and find peace. Then that Oval Office meeting happened… Guest: Romeo Kokriatski is the managing editor of New Voice of Ukraine, and co-host of the podcast Ukraine Without Hype. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show pag...
Mar 06, 2025•29 min
Republicans have been talking about cutting the size of the government down for decades. Now that the Trump administration is following through on those plans, the process is laying bare just how much pain this budget hacking is going to inflict on Americans and people across the globe. Guest: Jeffrey Okoro, executive director for CFK Africa, a non-profit focusing on public health and financial opportunities based in Nairobi, Kenya. Hannah Smith-Brubaker, farmer in central Pennsylvania and execu...
Mar 05, 2025•29 min
Congressional Republicans are trying to extend Trump’s first-term tax cuts, appease GOP budget hawks and increase defense spending—all in a single budget. Can it be done? Guest: Jim Newell, senior politics writer at Slate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you liste...
Mar 04, 2025•32 min
A survey of people incarcerated in California found that 20 percent of women in for homicide had killed their abusive partners. How have self-defense laws failed women in abusive relationships—and how can they be reformed to save lives? Guest: Rachel Louise Snyder, journalist, author of No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us, and professor at American University. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your othe...
Mar 03, 2025•37 min
Everyone’s talking about the price of eggs—so why are they so expensive? And when can we expect—if ever—the price to come back down? Guests: Dr. Jada Thompson, associate professor at the University of Arkansas Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access whereve...
Mar 02, 2025•25 min
Federal workers in the U.S. Digital Service resigned in protest over what they viewed as indiscriminate, irresponsible firings coming from the DOGE office. While lawsuits are entering the courts and protests are taking to the streets, will any of this make a difference to the chainsaw-minded leaders of DOGE? Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter at the New York Times and co-author of “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter.” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free l...
Feb 28, 2025•31 min
The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has held since January 19. Now, the second phase—negotiating Gaza’s future—is supposed to begin. But anger over the deaths of hostages and intrusions into the West Bank aren’t going to make it easy. Guest: Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Deep Shtetl, a newsletter about the intersection of politics, culture, and religion. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Sl...
Feb 27, 2025•32 min
In town halls from Oregon to Georgia, people are letting Republicans know just how angry they are about the dramatic cuts to the federal government. And their displeasure is starting to sink Trump’s approval rating. Guest: Greg Bluestein, political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Ben Mathis-Lilley, senior writer for Slate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the...
Feb 26, 2025•31 min
Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, isn’t on the public speaking circuit and has no social media presence. But he’s nevertheless become a Gen-Z-aged avatar of Trump masculinity for the MAGA faithful. Where does reality end and speculation begin? Guest: Dan Adler, staff writer for Vanity Fair. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts...
Feb 25, 2025•28 min
In 2011, a Republican majority in the Wisconsin State House faced massive protests to their plans to strip power from public sector workers. State Democrats fled across the border and the possibility of a general strike loomed. But the strike fizzled out and the legislation ultimately passed. And now the situation in the federal government is shaping up in a similar way. Do the workers need to break the glass and do what Wisconsin stopped short of? Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock ...
Feb 24, 2025•29 min
The crypto industry threw its weight and money behind Donald Trump, in hopes of legitimizing the industry. Before his Inauguration Day was over, Donald Trump was already enriching himself via a memecoin, one of the scammier, least legitimate-looking uses of crypto. Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, reporter covering cryptocurrency for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subs...
Feb 23, 2025•28 min
As someone whose companies receive billions of dollars from the government, it’s worth asking why Elon Musk is so zealous about cutting government spending. Guest: Max Chafkin, features editor and tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and cohost of the Elon, Inc podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show p...
Feb 21, 2025•37 min
Trump's pick for labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is an outlier: She has experience in federal government, where she was one of three House Republicans to support the “Protecting the Right to Organize Act” to expand employees’ rights to organize and collectively bargain and she was accompanied by the head of the Teamsters when she went to visit Mar A Lago after the election. What did her hearing tell us about how she would approach being labor secretary—while working in an administration th...
Feb 20, 2025•31 min
When enough people opt out of routine vaccinations for their children, diseases that have been all but eliminated can come roaring back, as is the case with a growing measles outbreak in West Texas. Guest: Dr. Adam Ratner, pediatrician of infectious disease in New York City and author of Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podc...
Feb 19, 2025•31 min
The Justice Department ordered New York federal prosecutors to drop charges against Eric Adams, claiming his indictment was preventing him from aiding in Trump’s immigration crackdown. The move has prompted multiple high level Justice Department officials to resign, and raised concerns of a quid pro quo. Guest: Jay Willis, Editor-in-Chief of Balls & Strikes. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscr...
Feb 18, 2025•31 min
As What Next celebrates President’s Day, please enjoy this episode from our colleagues at How To. What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow. Jeff and his family lost their home last month in the L.A. wildfires. Since then, he’s been hyperfocused on insurance claims, an epic to-do list, and finding a “temporary” place to live for the next several years. But Jeff hasn’t experienced the emotional punch of the devastation yet. In fact… he just feels numb. On this episode of How To!, Courtney Mart...
Feb 17, 2025•57 min
The infinite scroll has no purpose other than keeping your attention. But that doesn’t mean it’s value-neutral. Guest: Chris Hayes, MSNBC news anchor and author of “The Siren's Call: How Attention Became The World's Most Endangered Resource.” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/w...
Feb 16, 2025•30 min
Is Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI genuine—or an irresistible opportunity to troll Sam Altman? Guest: David A. Fahrenthold, investigative reporter for the New York Times Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more a...
Feb 14, 2025•27 min
As Donald Trump’s campaign of trans panic and anti-Latin American sentiment buoyed him back to the White House, Emilia Pérez looked like a film to meet the moment. Then audiences started actually seeing it and...yikes. Guest: Michael Schulman, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe direct...
Feb 13, 2025•30 min
Among his recent executive orders, Donald Trump moved to halt aid to South Africa over a land law and extended political asylum to South Africa’s white Afrikaner population. Where does Trump’s seemingly spotty understanding of South Africa come from? How could having close advisors who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, like Elon Musk, influence him? Guest: Chris McGreal, writer for The Guardian US who reported from South Africa during the end of apartheid. Want more What Next? Join Slate Pl...
Feb 12, 2025•30 min
As Donald Trump has demonstrated, losing an election is no reason to admit you lost an election. In fact, in North Carolina, the Republican challenger, who lost a race for the state’s Supreme Court, is testing a bold new strategy of disqualifying ballots until he gets the result he wants. And if he succeeds, it could start a trend. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate senior writer covering courts and the law. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all yo...
Feb 11, 2025•29 min
Donald Trump has a lot of similarities—and something of a bromance—with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. And those who wish to resist Trump’s Orbán-like, right-wing strongman tendencies could learn something from the resistance in Hungary. Guest: Gábor Scheiring, former member of the Hungarian parliament and assistant professor of comparative politics at Georgetown University Qatar. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite...
Feb 10, 2025•29 min
Using Github, you can watch as government websites are brought into compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders. Out goes the word “equity;” in comes “fair.” And health and science data, once publicly available, disappears. Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media. Jeremy Prokop, data science advisor in the Midwest Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podca...
Feb 09, 2025•30 min
Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games? Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for the Washington Post. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next TBD—you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show ...
Feb 07, 2025•7 min
You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves. Guest: Makena Kelly, senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast ...
Feb 07, 2025•24 min
Last week, Donald Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be used to house the “worst criminal illegal aliens” and claimed that it would be drastically scaled up to hold as many as 30,000 people. In addition to its infamous role in the War on Terror, it’s the latest use of Gitmo as an immigration deterrent—and legal grey zone. Guest: Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next...
Feb 06, 2025•30 min
